New Direct Detection Targets for Sub-GeV Dark Matter

This research presents new thermal-relic milestones for sub-GeV dark matter candidates that couple to vector mediators. The study addresses the challenge of detecting dark matter in the sub-GeV mass range, where the Lee-Weinberg bound necessitates the existence of comparably light mediator particles to achieve a suitably large annihilation cross section. The researchers focus on models where the mediators are massive gauge bosons of anomaly-free abelian extensions to the Standard Model, including the dark photon, gauged L_i - L_j, B-L, and B-3L_i models. Since the same interactions that govern cosmological production also govern electron scattering, the targets presented are firmly predictive, allowing for these models to be robustly discovered or falsified through direct detection experiments involving electron recoils. Furthermore, the study claims to exhaust the minimal anomaly-free U(1) extensions to the Standard Model, offering a complete list of predictive milestones for sub-GeV dark matter coupled to vector mediators. This work is significant because it provides concrete targets for ongoing and future direct detection experiments, potentially leading to a breakthrough in our understanding of dark matter's fundamental properties and its interactions with the Standard Model.

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